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If I add a separator to a panel and then right click on it, click "Set to Default Size" it collapses to Zero and makes the Panel & Frame smaller. Expected Behavior: The Separator default size should be the same size as it is when you add it to a Panel. If setting it to Default Size, it should not change the size of your Panel & Frame. Workaround: Use undo to go back. Product Version: NetBeans IDE Dev (Build 201109290601) Java: 1.7.0; Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM 21.0-b17 System: Windows Vista version 6.0 running on x86; Cp1252; en_US (nb)
Actually, all Swing Controls will cause the Panel & Frame to become smaller if they are set to default size, it's just that the separator that collapses to zero instead of it's real default size.
There are two aspects of this issue: collapsed separator and resized panel. The prefered width of JSeparator is 0. When you add JSeparator into the form then we do not honor its prefered size because it is hard to manipulate zero-width components. On the other hand, when you explicitly ask the GUI Builder to set the size of the separator to the default size then you probably know what you are doing, i.e., there is no reason to do anything else then setting the size of the separator to its default size (which means to set the width to zero). So, this behavior is as designed. When you change size of some component (like the size of the separator using Set to Default Size action) then there are various possibilities what you may expect to happen to the enclosing container. For example, you may expect the container to keep the same size and the remaining space to be somehow distributed in the container's layout. On the other hand, you may expect the rest of the layout constraints to stay the same and modify the size of the enclosing container to reflect that. Consider, for example, the following layout: horizontal layout: separator of width 100 followed by a gap of width 200 vertical layout separator of height 5 followed by a gap of height 295 The first approach (suggested by you) would lead to layout separator of width 0 followed by a gap of width 300 separator of height 2 followed by a gap of height 298 (notice the modified sizes of gaps) The second approach (used by GUI Builder) leads to layout separator of width 0 followed by a gap of width 200 separator of height 2 followed by a gap of height 295 (all sizes not related to separator are honored) Both these approaches have pros and cons, but one has to be choosen and used by GUI Builder when performing Set to Default Size action. The second one was selected for various reasons. So, this behavior is as designed as well. I am closing this issue as invalid because the described behavior is as designed.